Martin O’Neill is taking sympathy with Erik Ten Hag during the Cristiano Ronaldo saga, the former Aston Villa boss telling talkSPORT (15 November, 12.45pm) that he found himself in a similar position when Gareth Barry was pushing for a move to Liverpool.
You can always count on an international break to throw up storylines like this.
14 years ago, Aston Villa were forced to discipline wantaway captain Gareth Barry for an unauthorised interview he gave to the News of the World during the 2008 European Championships, the long-serving skipper singling out O’Neil for criticism during at a time in which his manager was performing punditry duties in Austria.
“My mind’s made up, I want to join Liverpool,” Barry said. “I’m desperate to play Champions League football and that’s why I have to leave Villa. It’s seven weeks now since the season finished. But, while the gaffer’s found time to be a pundit for the BBC at Euro 2008, he hasn’t found the time to speak to me.”
O’Neill, then, can imagine how Ten Hag must have been feeling when news of Ronaldo’s already-infamous Talk TV interview filtered through on Sunday night; overshadowing Alejandro Garnacho’s 92nd minute winner away from home at Fulham.
Erik Ten Hag faces yet more Cristiano Ronaldo drama at Old Trafford
“I’m looking at it from a managerial (point of view),” muses O’Neil; the softly-spoken Irishman having led Aston Villa to three successive top-six finishes between 2007 and 2010.
“I remember an example I could give; I was doing some punditry work in the summer of 2008 in Vienna. So I pick up this newspaper and it’s Gareth Barry, who I got on really well with. I helped him get into the England squad when I was manager of Aston Villa, and he was playing splendidly for us.
“He was criticising me for being out there (claiming) I wasn’t trying to help conduct a move to Liverpool for him! I found that really awkward, I didn’t really want to (let him go to Liverpool) anyway. I wanted to keep him.
“So when I came back I said to Gareth; ‘There are easier ways of dealing with this, you know. First of all, you could have said to me. You didn’t need to go through a newspaper, which I think he accepted later on.
“And, secondly, if you want to go to Liverpool, that’s not the way to go (about it).”
Ironically enough, Barry would end up joining Liverpool’s top-flight rivals Manchester City in a £12 million deal a year later. The Reds, O’Neill recalls, never met Aston Villa’s asking price, despite splashing out a far bigger sum to take Robbie Keane from Tottenham Hotspur.
“In the end, I think Liverpool didn’t make a big enough offer for him. I think we were looking for about £10 million. They went to £8 million and didn’t go any further, saying they didn’t have any money,” the 70-year-old adds.
“And then, the following week, they paid £20 million for Robbie Keane! That didn’t help Gareth’s mood much either.”
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